1. Technical Field of Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for maximizing engine power output through the use of smart controllers for active conditioners and pressurizers of incoming air. The Smart System Controller for Flowing Fluid Conditioners (SSCFFC) invention is specifically for monitoring and control of the pressure boosting, cooling and heating of said incoming air in applications that require environmental flexibility and on-demand efficiency enhancement capability.
2. Description of Prior Art
The trend toward smaller automobile engines is driven by a need to meet targets for lower carbon dioxide and other emissions. In order to achieve this goal, the auto industry is introducing smaller engines that are more fuel-efficient, but customers have come to expect a high level of performance. Designers are able to choose from two main methods of raising output power of smaller engines; first, tweaking, that is to adjust cam timing (lift, attack and duration of cam lobes), advance spark and duration, and fuel timing and duration. Second, boost assist, that is adding a compressor that will increase the amount of air injected into an engine for a given inlet valve opening. With either of these methods, incoming air temperature is critical to performance and emissions. Whether an engine is self-combusting (as with diesels) or sparked, a critical amount of air and fuel at a set temperature will contribute to efficient combustion. A small variation in temperature (above or below optimal) can cause operational problems at best and even catastrophic failures in some cases. In order to meet these tight restrictions, designers have most often used boosted or assisted aspiration technologies. For example, small engines with turbochargers have been implemented to match the peak power of larger naturally aspirated units while still having the benefit of using less fuel and exhausting lower CO2 concentrations. Intercoolers have been used as a natural complement to forced air aspiration systems that naturally tend to heat the air as they compress. This choice has much to do with the reality that to date only reactive technologies have been available to compensate for temperatures outside ideal ranges. Reactive technologies in this disclosure refer to passive intercoolers; spark retarding engine controllers, and other devices without smart control and engine monitoring sensors.
Temperature directly affects the performance of an internal combustion engine. So that the ability to cool the air input into an engine will directly increase efficiency and horsepower. Air charge temperature also affects wear and reliability of engine components. Therefore, a lower temperature input during high demand load periods will lengthen engine life, reduce emissions and improve overall performance. Recently several new active fluid conditioning devices have been introduced for use in motor vehicles to accomplish cooling of the air just prior to engine intake. Specifically, active elements have now been applied to intercoolers. Said designs such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,019 provide cooling from thermoelectric devices. But invention U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,019 will have too slow a response time to be effective with the type of loads, and under such conditions, that can be characterized as “on-demand operation”. Because it is located directly in the air path for normal operation it will constantly be draining the power supply. A mechanism is necessary to control this large power drain. U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,193 introduces a by-pass or alternative air passage to the active cooler. Chilling of incoming air is more efficient because it is provided only upon operator initiation. There is no advantage to conditioning during normal driving. That is, requiring operation of the Peltier Junctions in a steady-state condition would be prohibitively power demanding. Also, use in a strictly manual fashion during vehicle driving is not practical. The cooling response time of U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,193 (with a reservoir of stored BTU) can be useful when turned on manually for competition in drag racing type events. But neither invention described above provides for practical automatic control for embodiment operation. Therefore, a control solution, which can perform under demand conditions as required in normal driving conditions for passing does not exist. For example, no WOT signal is discussed or provided in prior discussion of intercoolers. Without adequate strategic controls, the existing intercooler inventions will achieve no net benefits in real world (non-performance competition) applications. Despite technological advances with intercoolers, several critical weaknesses remain in all prior systems. Prior art does not provide for handling large temperature gains in the charged air by virtue of being air-to-air based intercoolers (these designs can not achieve wide temperature differentials due to the heat sink temperature always at or above ambient temperature). Of the active systems, prior art runs the thermoelectric continuously during peak demands thereby draining engine power and does not have a control mechanism to achieve efficiency of operation. Additionally, no production engines have been tweaked (tuned for absolute maximum performance) as no dedicated intercooler control system has offered smart temperature compensation. No smart controller has been proposed that can supervise and schedule operation, enhancement, recharging, and system override of an actively chilled electronic supercharger. Also, no controllable conditioner with active temperature enhancement for increased temperature range was available prior to disclosure by present inventor, Flowing Fluid Conditioner (FFC), Perkins, Ser. No. 10/930,998, Aug. 31, 2004. No warmer type intercooler with active temperature enhancement was available prior to FFC. Additionally, no integrated conditioning and boosting system was available prior to On Demand Boost Conditioner (ODBC), Perkins, 60/628,490, Nov. 15, 2004. No systems that can alternately cool or warm boosted air are available prior to FFC. No system buffer was available that complements a smart controller. No system that could provide advanced sensing capabilities for measurement of critical temperature and combustion signatures is presently available. No sensor or control unit exists that can detect or moreover correct for engine abnormal combustion situations. No system is available that integrates these functions, is compatible with OBD-2 and CAN standards, and can interface them interactively with the host vehicle.